The present technique relates to a power supply device and method as well as a program, and particularly to a power supply device and method as well as a program which, in supplying electric power by using a power supply line, can supply electric power only to an electronic device owned by a specific user, who can then be billed surely.
An electric vehicle is becoming widespread as part of the environmental technology. It is imperative that an establishment supplying and selling electric power which powers the electric vehicle is made widely available in order to promote the widespread user of the electric vehicles. The establishment supplying and selling electric power is a facility similar to a gas station currently used but is a facility which charges, by supplying electric power, a battery that stores electric power being a power source of the electric vehicle.
Supplying and selling electric power requires a considerable amount of charging time to complete charging compared to selling fuel such as gasoline. Although an electric vehicle is ideally charged while parked in a parking lot, it is concerned that another electric vehicle is unduly charged while an owner of the electric vehicle leaves his/her electric vehicle in the middle of charging. In order to supply electric power to an electric vehicle and surely bill for the electric power supplied, it is required to at least be aware of which electric vehicle is connected to the power supply line supplying electric power to an electric vehicle.
As a technique to meet such requirement, there has been proposed a technique which specifies the type of electronic device connected to the power supply line by means of power supply line communication called PLC (Power Line Communication) (refer to Patent Document 1). This technique is applicable since an electric vehicle is a kind of electronic device.